: Joanne Thomson, Vikki MacKay: Art is for
enjoyment, not pretense. -

innocence, but says she was not.as moved by the
Renaissance art, which was mostly politically moti-
vated. She says she found herself overwhelmed by
the masses of people and when she would try sketch-
ing there were always a dozen or more people coming
up behind her to see what she was doing, which she
found very distracting. However, two paintings that
were done in her husband’s home town in Italy, will
be in the current show.

Joanne says she was not inspired to imitate
Renaissance art. Instead, she is inspired by northern
B.C., and is more interested in expressing what is
around her, rather than history. She says her trip
affirmed for her the direction her art is taking.

.Joanne first: started working in acrylics then

switched to water colours, where she has pretty

much stayed. She also occasionally works in oils, and
in fact will have two oil paintings in this show. She
says she has been influenced lately by her children’s
art, and that will also be evident in this current
show.

Joanne works from.a small studio in her home
but says when she is driving she often stops and
works by the side of the road in her car, to do a
watercolour, or a pencil sketch. She says she likes to
work on site as she does not work well from memory
or photos, which she finds very stiff.

Vikki, however, stayed in Terrace after high

school and says that after sie was married’ and had

been away from home for a while, her father, who
was a professional artist, taught her and her mother
to paint with oils. After that she took whatever
classes came along. Her turning point was when the

Emily Carr College of Art and Design had their
Outreach Classes at the Northwest Community —

College. She says she took a lot of the courses and
learned an incredible amount. However, it has taken
years to sort it all out, and she feels she is still
learning. |

Vikki has been using oils since she started

painting, acrylics for 10 years and watercolours for —
about six years. In this show she will have acrylics,
a few of her black and white series as. well as
watercolour, and some mixed media. She will have
no oils but will have several expressionistic garden
scenes done with watercolours and chalk pastel. She
says people will see quite a departure from her usual
landscapes and detailed realism i in many paintings in
this show.

Vikki says she was "up against a wall" a few
years ago. She felt she was doing the same thing
over and over again and would pick up a brush and
try to paint, but "scrunched up" everything she did.
To get out of the block she tried different paper and

different paint and went in a whole new direction,

which got her very excited about having something
new to work with and something new to learn.

. Vikki says she changed direction with her art
due mostly to the excitement of the medium, learning
the watercolour, how to use it to make it do what you
want it to do. She says she finds it a major challenge
as watercolours do not like te be controlled, so every
brush stroke counts. If any errors occur all you can
do is throw it in the garbage and start over again.

Vikki says she found this winter interesting
because of the way she is painting right now, which
is very wet in terms of using water colours. She says
she loves to paint the mists, rains and stormy type of
moods, as well as bright summer garden scenes. She
says she still sees herself as a landscape artist, but
is just expressing it in different ways now.

Vikki seldom paints or draws on site as she finds

- herself overwhelmed by everything around her. She

relies heavily on her photographic memory, taking a

"visual snapshot", and is able to accurately recall

what she has seen, although she sometimes will use
photos as a backup. She says she now wants to get
away from photographic realism and more into
emotions rather than details.

Vikki says that painting is very personal and
very much an expression of the artist’s personality.
She says she always tells people not to worry if they
don’t find something they like or want to buy. Art is
very much a personal choice for all people.

Joanne agrees that art is very personal and says
her attitude is “it’s okay if you don’t like it, as long
as I do". She says art should be for enjoyment, not
pretention.

In describing this current show both agree it is
colourful and refreshing, and hope people will come
out and enjoy their work. They do caution, though,
not to come out and be serious. Both say they are
having fun with their painting, and at this point they
feel this will be a fun show.

The show opened April 3 and runs through to
April 26. The Gallery hours are Tuesday to Saturday
12 p.m. to 3 p.m.; Sunday 1 p.m to 4 p.m; Tuesday
to Thursday 7 p.m to 9 p.m.

— Diana English

Terrace Review — April 10, 1992
SHU